The Role of Conflict in Producing Alternative Social Imaginations of the Future

Greater resilience is associated with the ability to self-organise, and with social learning as part of a process of adaptation and transformation (Goldstein 341). This article deals with responses to a crisis in a Norwegian community in the late 1880s, and with some of the many internal conflicts it caused. The crisis and the subsequent conflicts in this particular community, Volda, were caused by a number of processes, driven mostly by external forces and closely linked to the expansion of the capitalist mode of production in rural Norway. But the crisis also reflects a growing nationalism in Norway. In the late 1880s, all these causes seemed to come together in Volda, a small community consisting mostly of independent small farmers and of fishers. The article employs the concept of ‘resilience’ and the theory of resilience in order better to understand how individuals and the community reacted to crisis and conflict in Volda in late 1880, experiences which will cast light on the history of the late 1880s in Volda, and on individuals and communities elsewhere which have also experienced such crises

An explorative study of wiki as a teaching resource for students of journalism

The article reports on how a wiki was introduced in the teaching of Development and Environmental Studies to journalism students in Oslo, Norway and intends to contribute to the understanding of how students use wiki technology to produce knowledge. The findings indicate that using wikis stimulates cooperation between students and strengthens collective processes of learning. Even more importantly, the investigation shows that using wikis can improve the teacher’s understanding of the process of learning. However, some lecturers found serious framing problems in articles regarding lectures they had given, especially when they had been introducing new terms or new perspectives on complex issues. To avoid a process where students repeat and mutually reinforce each other’s misrepresentations, it is necessary to construct a scheme of systematic feedback, including perspectives from lecturers and teachers

From indios to indígenas: guerrilla perspectives on indigenous peoples and repression in Mexico, Guatemala and Nicaragua

Subcomandante Marcos and other Zapatistas have on numerous occasions discussed the clash between “Northern” perspectives on revolution and the world, and indigenous reality. Understanding the meaning, for the insurgency, of the indigenous culture of the Zapatista support base has also been a major topic in the writing of many supporters of, and visitors to, the Zapatistas. But such an understanding of the history of the Zapatistas has consequences for our understanding of the conflicts between guerrilla organizations and indigenous peoples in Guatemala and Nicaragua during the 80s and 90s. This article seeks to contribute to our understanding of such issues based on studies of the Zapatistas and similar encounters between guerrilleros and indigenous peoples in Nicaragua and Guatemala. A better understanding of the clash between “Northern” perspectives and indigenous realities is a necessary prerequisite for understanding why some movements fail and others succeed. The relationship between armed groups and indigenous peoples had a powerful effect on the outcomes of the civil wars in the region. The root causes for the problems between indigenous peoples and guerrilla organizations are sought in, among other things, militaristic guerrilla organisations, marked by hierarchical, centralised and inflexible structures which did not facilitate the processes of learning. Learning to understand indigenous peoples and their worldviews would have been necessary to avoid the type of self-destructive behaviour that is described in this article. The experiences from Nicaragua, Guatemala and Mexico raises some important questions for future research on social movements also elsewhere: Who do the movements represent? What type of communication and learning goes on within the social movement? Are certain groups excluded from fully participating

Journalistic Narratives of Success and Failure at the Bali Climate Change Conference in 2007

This article investigates how journalists employed pre-defined culturally grounded meta-narratives and genres in journalistic communication of climate change at the Bali summit in 2007. The journalists investigated in this article are found to have constructed a variety of “protagonists”. The most typical is based on the representative from a “tiny” state that stood up to the “most powerful nation on earth”. Other varieties place the protagonists and helpers firmly within longer, well-known national narratives on nation and its role in the world. The constant ingredient in almost all narratives seems to be the construction of the “opponent”, with the USA universally portrayed as the opponent who has to be defeated in order for the desired goal to be achieved. A large majority of journalists in this selection systematically chose to construct narratives conforming to pre-defined genres, structuring and framing the information according to historically constructed notions of what the audience want. The need to construct a “good story” took precedence over the critical ideal of “informing society”. From a critical realism perspective, this is problematic because ontology must have priority over epistemology

Alternative journalism and the relationship between guerrillas and indigenous peoples in Latin America

Academic study of alternative journalism is dominated by an approach that celebrates alternative media for its capacity to “empower” citizens. Existing literature on alternative media and alternative journalism often highlight its potential for creating “spaces” where alternative voices can be heard and its value is seen in its contribution towards the construction of alternative “narratives”. While it is important to celebrate the role of alternative media, it is equally important to remain self-critical in order to learn from past experiences, especially when they raise important ethical questions on the type of alternative narratives or alternative truths produced and the solidarity actions these truths and narratives helped bring about. This is the case with much of the reporting in the alternative media on indigenous issues and rights during the civil wars in Nicaragua, Guatemala and, to a lesser extent, in Chiapas, Mexico. This article will try to engage critically with the history of European and North American alternative media reporting on indigenous issues in these countries during the 80s and 90s. The purpose is not to discuss empirical findings, but to reflect on theories that can guide future studies on alternative media and alternative journalism on the wars in Nicaragua, Guatemala and Chiapas, Mexico. This article will discuss the usefulness of theories and understandings of alternative media and journalism that builds on postmodern and post structural versions of social constructionism. The article offers a critique of postmodern and post structural versions of social constructionism in studies of alternative media and alternative journalism. The critique builds on previous critiques of social movement theory and research made by scholars writing from a critical realist perspective

Kjendisaktivisme - er det til gagn?

Fenomenet kjendisaktivisme veks grenselaust intern asjonalt, skriv Tsaliki, Frangonikolopoulos og Huliaras i ein antologi om fenomenet (Tsaliki, Frango- nikolopoulos & Huliaras 2011b: 29). Likevel, legg dei til, er lite gjort for å under- søke årsaker til og verknader av kjen disaktivisme i internasjonal politikk. Det er ikkje få superstjerner som har engasjert seg i internasjonale spørsmål dei siste åra. Til dømes har den amerikanske skodespelaren Mia Farrow tatt del i kampanjar for å presse Ki na til å gjere noko for å få slutt på borgarkrigen i Darfur i Sudan, Roger «James Bond» Moore arbeider for å bygge opp skular i Malawi, og skodespel ar Danny Glover engasjerer seg for å få større merksemd om dei alvorl ege konsekvensane av hiv/aids globalt. Det er vanleg å knyte framveksten av kjendisar av denne typen til utvik- linga av teknologi, massemedium og globaliseringa av filmbransjen. Kjen- diskulturen slo for alvor gjennom med veksten i avisbransjen og med tele- grambyråa frå midten av 1800 -talet. Men kvifor speler det ei rolle kva kjen- disar seier om internasjonale spørsmål? Denne artikkelen tek for seg nokre ferske tilskot til debatten om kjen- disaktivisme. Den vil syne korleis slik aktivisme har endra seg dei siste åra, men også korleis ulike typar kjen disar engasjerer seg ulike slag kon- fliktar og spørsmål. Arti kkelen byrjar med eit lite, lokalt døme for å syne nokre historiske røter

Revisiting social and deep ecology in the light of global warming

The purpose of this article is largely theoretical. It asks what type of perspective is needed in order for left libertarians and anarchists to develop a deeper understanding of global warming. This way of framing the question builds on a set of premises which I will spell out. First, global warming is real. Second, the reality of global warming exists independently of our discourse about it. Third, global warming will have real and dangerous consequences for humans and human society. Fourth, we do not have full knowledge about global warming and climate change, and we must reach a deeper understanding. Fifth, the urgency of global warming demands that we act before we know everything we want to know about it. Sixth, human societies have an inherently creative capacity to find solutions to the challenges posed by global warming. Ethical thinking about global warming cannot, therefore, be reduced to the realm of human consciousness, language and discourse; global warming forces us to rethink our relationship with nature and our possible paths to understanding nature and reality in a theoretically serious manner (in the Hegelian sense of the word ‘serious’) – that is, in terms of the unity between theory and praxis

Expectations, Challenges, and Expertise : The Importance of Non-Western Data Journalism

Peer reviewe

Legionella pneumophila in Municipal Shower Systems in Stavanger, Norway; A Longitudinal Surveillance Study Using Whole Genome Sequencing in Risk Management

Following an incidence of Legionnaires disease (LD) in 2007, where a municipal shower system was the likely source of infection, Stavanger municipality initiated a surveillance program for Legionella as part of establishing internal risk evaluation and prevention routines. More than 250 shower systems were examined for cultivatable Legionella pneumophila. The prevalence and diversity of serogroups (sg) and sequence types (STs) of L. pneumophila were mapped using available typing techniques over a period of more than 10 years (2010–2021). The surveillance showed an overall reduction in the L. pneumophila colonisation rate in municipal systems from 11 to 4.5% following prevention measures during the period, with the highest colonisation rate in complex systems (e.g., larger nursing homes and sports complexes). Further, an approximately even distribution between sg1 and 2–14 was seen. Whole genome sequencing (WGS) revealed that only a limited number of STs were detected, and they were consistent at specific locations over time. This study showed that environmental surveillance data in combination with available typing techniques and WGS can give the municipality a better tool for risk management and an overview of ST distributions that can be a valuable asset in future source investigations.publishedVersio

Long-read sequencing for reliably calling the mompS allele in Legionella pneumophila sequence-based typing

Sequence-based typing (SBT) of Legionella pneumophila is a valuable tool in epidemiological studies and outbreak investigations of Legionnaires’ disease. In the L. pneumophila SBT scheme, mompS2 is one of seven genes that determine the sequence type (ST). The Legionella genome typically contains two copies of mompS (mompS1 and mompS2). When they are non-identical it can be challenging to determine the mompS2 allele, and subsequently the ST, from Illumina short-reads. In our collection of 233 L. pneumophila genomes, there were 62 STs, 18 of which carried non-identical mompS copies. Using short-reads, the mompS2 allele was misassembled or untypeable in several STs. Genomes belonging to ST154 and ST574, which carried mompS1 allele 7 and mompS2 allele 15, were assigned an incorrect mompS2 allele and/or mompS gene copy number when short-read assembled. For other isolates, mainly those carrying non-identical mompS copies, short-read assemblers occasionally failed to resolve the structure of the mompS-region, also resulting in untypeability from the short-read data. In this study, we wanted to understand the challenges we observed with calling the mompS2 allele from short-reads, assess if other short-read methods were able to resolve the mompS-region, and investigate the possibility of using long-reads to obtain the mompS alleles, and thereby perform L. pneumophila SBT from long-reads only. We found that the choice of short-read assembler had a major impact on resolving the mompS-region and thus SBT from short-reads, but no method consistently solved the mompS2 allele. By using Oxford Nanopore Technology (ONT) sequencing together with Trycycler and Medaka for long-read assembly and polishing we were able to resolve the mompS copies and correctly identify the mompS2 allele, in accordance with Sanger sequencing/EQA results for all tested isolates (n=35). The remaining six genes of the SBT profile could also be determined from the ONT-only reads. The STs called from ONT-only assemblies were also consistent with hybrid-assemblies of Illumina and ONT reads. We therefore propose ONT sequencing as an alternative method to perform L. pneumophila SBT to overcome the mompS challenge observed with short-reads. To facilitate this, we have developed ONTmompS (https://github.com/marithetland/ONTmompS), an in silico approach to determine L. pneumophila ST from long-read or hybrid assemblies.publishedVersio